Who's Sorry Now: Down by the Riverside

[wearside willow]

Cameron Steel has signed a contract extension until 2019. A good move imo, we must retain players who show promise as I'm sure other counties will be after them! Lewis says they are also keen to develop his leg-spin bowling and look to turn him into a genuine all-rounder.

Good move the lad deserves it way past a development contract.
If some don't sign contracts in the next 6 weeks it looks like a few could be off at the end of the season, young and old.

Yep. Do we know who is out of contract ? Colly on a year by year deal so if he wanted to he could wait -obviously it'll either be a new deal or retirement.
Problem we'll have is any promising youngsters will be on other clubs radars and it'll be increasingly hard to keep them.

Colly is in a tricky position, he is probably waiting to see if a vacancy comes up in the England set up but I can't see anything changing there until at least after the Ashes winter. But if that turns out to be a debacle again which it very easily could then no doubt there will be changes and Colly could be in line for a prominent job in the set up. he could probably oust lewis at Durham but he probably knows he is on a hiding to nothing there for the next few years, and a head coach at a struggling 2nd division county is not going to get an England job. I don't think Colly is in a position to retire and give up one of the highest salaries in county cricket if it is not going to be to move into a well paid job.

[captaincolly]

Cameron Steel has signed a contract extension until 2019. A good move imo, we must retain players who show promise as I'm sure other counties will be after them! Lewis says they are also keen to develop his leg-spin bowling and look to turn him into a genuine all-rounder.

Good move the lad deserves it way past a development contract.
If some don't sign contracts in the next 6 weeks it looks like a few could be off at the end of the season, young and old.

Yep. Do we know who is out of contract ? Colly on a year by year deal so if he wanted to he could wait -obviously it'll either be a new deal or retirement.
Problem we'll have is any promising youngsters will be on other clubs radars and it'll be increasingly hard to keep them.

Colly is in a tricky position, he is probably waiting to see if a vacancy comes up in the England set up but I can't see anything changing there until at least after the Ashes winter. But if that turns out to be a debacle again which it very easily could then no doubt there will be changes and Colly could be in line for a prominent job in the set up. he could probably oust lewis at Durham but he probably knows he is on a hiding to nothing there for the next few years, and a head coach at a struggling 2nd division county is not going to get an England job. I don't think Colly is in a position to retire and give up one of the highest salaries in county cricket if it is not going to be to move into a well paid job.

I agree.

[wearside willow]

I think Hickey might be in a tricky position with his season over and no further chances to impress. I think he may well have played a bit of championship cricket but that chance may well go to Trevaskis or Harding and with both of them slow left arm they provide better variety than Hickey as a 2nd off spinner.

[captaincolly]

I think Hickey might be in a tricky position with his season over and no further chances to impress. I think he may well have played a bit of championship cricket but that chance may well go to Trevaskis or Harding and with both of them slow left arm they provide better variety than Hickey as a 2nd off spinner.

No idea if it's true but a regular at the ground told me a few weeks ago that Hickey was out of favour with the management because of a perceived attitude problem - his source was another player. Might be nothing but the person I was talking to certainly won't have invented the story so I'm inclined to believe it's true and the only question is whether or not he has had problems with attitude or has been unfairly treated.
Either way I also think his future is very much in the balance.

[wearside willow]

Those whispers have been dogging him for a while, could well be something in it. I know one thing when he was playing for the Academy even as a younger member he always appeared to be lets say a confident young man.

[captaincolly]

Those whispers have been dogging him for a while, could well be something in it. I know one thing when he was playing for the Academy even as a younger member he always appeared to be lets say a confident young man.

It did seem strange how he wasn't anywhere near the first team at the start of the season, think his second X1 form was indifferent to start with but its not as if we had loads of other options.

[captaincolly]

Interesting comment by Steve James in The Times. He writes that the England coaching and management staff are not quite as excited about Stoneman as those in the press box.
Jennings will presumably retain his place for the next test after that scratchy 48 but if he does not look the part in the final test his replacement should have a relatively easy start against the West Indies before taking on the mighty Aussies.

[westoelad]

Interesting comment by Steve James in The Times. He writes that the England coaching and management staff are not quite as excited about Stoneman as those in the press box.
Jennings will presumably retain his place for the next test after that scratchy 48 but if he does not look the part in the final test his replacement should have a relatively easy start against the West Indies before taking on the mighty Aussies.

I think it might well be have been as much impressed by Jennings as not being impressed by Stoneman. That was before this series began and there's been no CC cricket since. It's Jennings attitude with the Lions as much as anything that impressed Andy Flower who apparently still has a big influence in these matters. Hameed, of course, may well come back into the equation.

[westoelad]

Those whispers have been dogging him for a while, could well be something in it. I know one thing when he was playing for the Academy even as a younger member he always appeared to be lets say a confident young man.

I seem to recall that he was suspended for a period at the beginning of last season which management tried to keep quiet. However, he was allowed to play for Northumberland against our 2nds iirc which rather let the cat out of the bag that his absence wasn't through injury.
He captains the 2nds though which hardly indicates that he's out of favour but, of course, it's Durham we're talking about so who knows?

[captaincolly]

Interesting comment by Steve James in The Times. He writes that the England coaching and management staff are not quite as excited about Stoneman as those in the press box.
Jennings will presumably retain his place for the next test after that scratchy 48 but if he does not look the part in the final test his replacement should have a relatively easy start against the West Indies before taking on the mighty Aussies.

I think it might well be have been as much impressed by Jennings as not being impressed by Stoneman. That was before this series began and there's been no CC cricket since. It's Jennings attitude with the Lions as much as anything that impressed Andy Flower who apparently still has a big influence in these matters. Hameed, of course, may well come back into the equation.

I think that's right. He certainly showed a lot of fight in the second innings.

[southwood]

Those whispers have been dogging him for a while, could well be something in it. I know one thing when he was playing for the Academy even as a younger member he always appeared to be lets say a confident young man.

I seem to recall that he was suspended for a period at the beginning of last season which management tried to keep quiet. However, he was allowed to play for Northumberland against our 2nds iirc which rather let the cat out of the bag that his absence wasn't through injury.
He captains the 2nds though which hardly indicates that he's out of favour but, of course, it's Durham we're talking about so who knows?

Didn't he come back from a stint in OZ a bit overweight or was that he previous year. He was out of favour then but I'm told that he has a good cricketing brain and has led teams well.

[westoelad]

Those whispers have been dogging him for a while, could well be something in it. I know one thing when he was playing for the Academy even as a younger member he always appeared to be lets say a confident young man.

I seem to recall that he was suspended for a period at the beginning of last season which management tried to keep quiet. However, he was allowed to play for Northumberland against our 2nds iirc which rather let the cat out of the bag that his absence wasn't through injury.
He captains the 2nds though which hardly indicates that he's out of favour but, of course, it's Durham we're talking about so who knows?

Didn't he come back from a stint in OZ a bit overweight or was that he previous year. He was out of favour then but I'm told that he has a good cricketing brain and has led teams well.

whatever his past misdemeanors he certainly hasn't been given 1st team opportunities to make a valid judgement on his future.

[captaincolly]

http://www.espncricinfo.com/county-cric ... 13318.html
Interesting comments on Durham towards the end of this roundup. Describes Coughlin as our most sought after player but is likely to stay-although the article claims he is out of contract at the end of the season.
I'm not sure though if he has been under-bowling himself in the T20 competition.

[westoelad]

http://www.espncricinfo.com/county-cricket-2017/content/story/1113318.html
Interesting comments on Durham towards the end of this roundup. Describes Coughlin as our most sought after player but is likely to stay-although the article claims he is out of contract at the end of the season.
I'm not sure though if he has been under-bowling himself in the T20 competition.

I had suspicions when he was offered the T20 captaincy that it was a sweetener to keep him here.

[captaincolly]

http://www.espncricinfo.com/county-cricket-2017/content/story/1113318.html
Interesting comments on Durham towards the end of this roundup. Describes Coughlin as our most sought after player but is likely to stay-although the article claims he is out of contract at the end of the season.
I'm not sure though if he has been under-bowling himself in the T20 competition.

I had suspicions when he was offered the T20 captaincy that it was a sweetener to keep him here.

I think you are right.